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Deposed Malian President Arrives in Senegal

April 19, 2012 8:00 PM

Mali's ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure (L) sits with Djibril Bassole, Burkina Faso's foreign minister and one of the leading mediators for West Africa's ECOWAS bloc, during a meeting in which Toure resigned in the capital Bamako, April 8, 2012.

Ousted Malian president Amadou Toumani Toure has arrived in Dakar with his family.

The office of Senegal's president, Macky Sall, had announced earlier Friday that the former president and his family were on their way to Senegal.

There was no word on how long they might stay. Mr. Toure fled his home in Bamako during the coup that ousted him from office last month, and he had been staying at the Senegalese embassy in the Malian capital.

Meanwhile, Mali's coup leaders said late Thursday they had released 22 political and military leaders from detention. The detainees included former prime ministers Modibo Sidibe and Soumaila Cisse, deposed defense minister Sadio Gassama, bank executives, and the head of police.

The arrests earlier this week drew international condemnation.

Renegade soldiers seized power in the coup March 22, accusing Mr. Toure of failing to properly equip the army to handle a Tuareg rebellion in the north.

After the economic regional bloc known as ECOWAS imposed harsh sanctions against coup leaders, the junta agreed last week to form a civilian transitional government to organize new elections.

Mr. Toure formally resigned on April 8, allowing the new interim government to take power.